


Boyfriends

by unfolded73



Series: Labels [1]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Canon Queer Relationship, Hand Jobs, M/M, Quiet Sex, Second-Hand Embarrassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:07:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22256932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unfolded73/pseuds/unfolded73
Summary: The first of a series of snapshot fics centered around how David and Patrick label their relationship.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Series: Labels [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602178
Comments: 50
Kudos: 430





	Boyfriends

**_Boyfriend,_ ** _n. a frequent or regular male companion in a romantic or sexual relationship_

~

Patrick watched Roland walking around the store, fondling the bottles on the shelves, and was glad that David was out on an errand and not here to see the way Roland was touching all the products. 

“Are you sure you won’t be getting any more of Mr. Hockley’s tea in?” Roland asked.

“Very sure,” Patrick said, leaning against the counter. Fortunately, they’d gotten rid of that so-called ‘tea’ before their new store was shut down by law enforcement. (He suspected Stevie had probably ended up with some of it stashed away in her apartment, but he wasn’t going to quibble over that.)

Roland grumbled and wandered over to the other side of the store. 

The bell above the door rang, and Patrick looked over to see Johnny Rose coming in. 

“Oh hi, Mr. Rose,” Patrick said, and he immediately felt himself starting to sweat. He and David had only been… whatever they were for a few weeks and he wasn’t sure what David’s father knew, but it seemed likely, given that Alexis and Moira knew they’d kissed about twelve hours after it happened, that Johnny Rose knew that Patrick and his son were involved.

“Hi, Patrick,” Johnny said, a pleasant smile on his face.

“Johnny, buddy! Not sure if you spending money at your son’s store really helps the family’s revenue stream, you know?”

“Can I help you find anything?” Patrick asked while Johnny rolled his eyes at Roland.

“Moira wanted me to see if you had any more of that Viognier that she liked,” Johnny said, walking over to where they had bottles of wine displayed.

“I think we have some in the back,” Patrick replied, happy to excuse himself to the storeroom for a minute to try to get some of his equilibrium back. The box of wine was exactly where it was supposed to be though, so it only took him a few seconds to retrieve a bottle and carry it back out to the main floor. “Found some.”

“Hey, you know what you should carry in the store, Pat?” Roland called across the length of the large room.

“That’s the one,” Johnny said, taking the wine bottle and examining the label. “Maybe I’ll get some brie to go with it,” he said, moving over to the refrigerator.

“Lube. You should carry lube,” Roland continued. His voice was very, very loud.

Patrick felt his face flush. “Thanks for the suggestion, Roland.” He glanced over at Johnny. “The brie’s on the third shelf, on the left there,” he said, pointing, hoping to get David’s father out of the store before Roland suggested anything worse.

Roland seemed to sense Patrick’s discomfort, though, and he grinned, approaching the front of the store where Johnny and Patrick were standing. “You know, you and your _boyfriend_ David could sample some different varieties, maybe. To ensure you were selling a good quality product.”

 _Oh god._ Patrick began praying for the floor to open up and swallow him whole. An inner voice took that moment to point out to him that ‘boyfriend’ wasn’t even a term that David had used yet, but that hardly seemed the point.

“Okay, Roland, that’s enough,” Johnny said, setting his wine and cheese down, and Patrick went over to the register and began ringing up his purchases. 

“I’m just saying—”

“Yeah, yeah, I think we all understand what you’re saying,” Johnny interrupted.

Roland clapped Johnny on the back, grinning at Patrick. “So, I’m gonna take off,” he said, as if he had deduced that the absolute worst thing he could do at this moment was to leave Johnny and Patrick alone, and so he was doing exactly that. “Have a good one, Pat!” he called as he left. He hadn’t even had the decency to buy anything, Patrick thought.

“That’ll be $27.47,” Patrick said to Johnny, and then cleared his throat. “Sorry about that.” He didn’t know what he was apologizing for. For the fact that Roland Schitt existed? For the fact that Patrick was having sex with Johnny’s son, and that Roland (and the rest of the town, probably) somehow knew about it?

“Well, that’s Roland, you know. Wildly inappropriate as always!” He pulled a couple of bills out of his wallet and handed them to Patrick.

Patrick gave an uneasy chuckle. “Yeah.”

“Not that there’s anything _inappropriate_ about… you know… you and David, umm…” Johnny fumbled while Patrick desperately looked for a conversational on-ramp so that he could stop Johnny from heading down the road he appeared to be on. 

“Let me just get your change here,” Patrick said too loudly, popping the cash register open.

“I’ll admit, though, mixing a business relationship and a romantic relationship,” Johnny continued, and here he’d stopped fumbling with his words, and Patrick looked up to lock eyes with him. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that it can be complicated. Especially if things don’t work out, and you still have to see each other at the store every day.”

Patrick tried to imagine his own father in Mr. Rose’s shoes, his main concern about David and Patrick’s relationship being the fate of the business rather than the fact that David was a man. He hoped it would be that way, but he honestly wasn’t sure. The ease with which David’s father took his son’s sexual orientation in stride filled Patrick with a swell of affection for him.

“We have, um, talked about that,” Patrick said, handing over Johnny’s change. He didn’t want David’s father to think that if things between him and David didn’t work out romantically that he would leave David in the lurch. “The store is very important to us. To _me_. I want it to succeed, regardless of… anything else.”

“Well, that’s good to hear.” 

Patrick put the wine and cheese in a bag and handed it over. “Thanks for coming in, Mr. Rose.”

Johnny took the bag. “You should join the family for dinner sometime,” he said with a kind smile. “Let us get to know you better.”

Patrick suspected David might not be thrilled with that idea, as if too much exposure of the Roses to Patrick would pop the new relationship bubble they were currently floating in. Not to mention the fact that having dinner with the family was a boyfriend activity, and they weren’t using that word. _Yet_ , his brain supplied optimistically. “I’d like that,” Patrick replied, hoping his face didn’t betray any of his doubts.

“Great. Thanks again for the wine, Patrick.” With a small wave, he left the store. 

By the time David came back a half hour later, Patrick had resolved not to tell him about any of his encounter with Roland and Johnny, but then David opened his mouth. “Why was Roland just winking at me in the post office and telling me to ask you about his suggestion for the store?” He kissed Patrick’s cheek as he went to put the box he was carrying in the storeroom, and Patrick did his best to pretend that even that innocent touch of David’s lips didn’t make him flush hot all over.

“Do you really want to know the answer to that question, David?” Patrick said, following him behind the curtain.

“Probably not,” David said, setting his sunglasses down on the desk. “But tell me anyway.”

“He wants us to carry lube.”

David’s face went on a fascinating journey that Patrick watched with amusement. “The thing is,” David said, “I’ve been considering it. But I don’t want to know that much about the sexual habits of the residents of this town. Roland especially.”

“Also, he suggested that you and I sample some varieties together,” Patrick said, figuring maybe it was better to just tell David the truth.

“Oh my god.”

“And he said this in front of your dad.”

“ _Oh_ my _god_.”

“Yeah.”

“Was my dad weird about it?” David asked, wincing.

“He seemed more concerned about us breaking up and the store falling apart,” Patrick admitted.

David’s wince got more exaggerated. “What did he say to you?”

“It was fine,” Patrick said, getting in David’s personal space and putting his hands on David’s hips. “Sounds like he wants me to get to know your family better.”

“That would be a terrible mistake,” David said, but he leaned in and kissed Patrick on the lips, like he couldn’t not when they were this close to each other, regardless of what they were talking about. “Once you’ve gotten to know my family, our days are numbered.”

“I seriously doubt that’s true, David,” Patrick said, returning the kiss with a little more intensity (and tongue). A line about kissing from _Pretty in Pink_ suddenly popped into his head: _“Did you feel it in your knees?”_ Patrick’s cousin Jennifer was always watching 80s movies when Patrick was a kid, and for some reason that piece of dialogue had stuck with him. He’d never known what it meant until David.

“You’ve never heard my mother reminisce out loud about _Sunrise Bay_ ,” David said when they finally parted, his arms draping over Patrick’s shoulders.

“Yeah, I don’t think that will bother me,” Patrick said, fingers looping in David’s belt loops and pulling him closer.

David hummed with skepticism, but his mouth bent into a half-smile and his eyes sparkled. “You say that now.”

Patrick kissed him again, his teeth scraping across David’s lip, just enough to make David shiver and kiss him harder.

~*~

It was another week before David used the word ‘boyfriend’, and while it might have been a mistaken utterance in the midst of an outburst about toilet plungers and lip balm and Patrick’s shoes, when David sat on Patrick’s lap in the store that night and smiled into their kiss, Patrick figured he must not regret saying it. _Boyfriend_. Patrick had a _boyfriend_. He’d been thinking along those lines since he asked David out, but it was nice to have the word out there between them, agreed upon. Sealed with a kiss, as it were.

He took the label for a test drive the following day, running over to the café in the middle of the afternoon. As the rhythms of the store were starting to settle into discernible patterns, Patrick had noticed that his and David’s energy tended to flag just before the late afternoon influx of customers. Caffeine was often necessary to make it to closing.

“Hi, Patrick!” Twyla grinned as he approached the counter. “A tea for you and a macchiato for David?” 

“We’re getting that predictable already, huh?” 

“That depends,” she said. “Are you coming in for a dinner date on Friday?”

Okay, that wasn’t fair, they’d only done that once since David’s birthday. It was hardly a pattern. “Actually, my boyfriend wants to try some Thai place in Elmdale on Friday,” he said, trying to slip the word naturally into conversation, but he felt like it stuck out like a flashing sign. 

Twyla winked at him. “Sounds fun. I’ll go get your drinks.”

It was in that moment that it hit Patrick so hard that he almost doubled over like he’d taken a blow to the stomach. He was out of the closet. Not to everyone, of course — not to his family or his ex-fiancée, but he didn’t feel ready to even contemplate that yet. But he was out to his boyfriend’s family, who seemed to have accepted his presence in David’s life. (Particularly Alexis, who texted him regularly and had even saved him a seat at Asbestos Fest that day when he was running late closing up the store.) He was out to Ray, who’d said he was fine with it if David wanted to sleep over. He was out to Twyla and Roland and the lady who came in for bath salts that day they couldn’t stop kissing and, given the way small town rumor mills worked, to probably everyone in Schitt’s Creek. It was completely revolutionary and yet somehow the easiest thing in the world. He and David were boyfriends and no one seemed to care, at least not for the reason he would have feared.

When he returned to the store with his tea and David’s macchiato, he gave his boyfriend a lingering kiss even though there was a customer in the back fondling the alpaca scarves. 

“Mmm,” David vocalized, accepting his coffee and taking a sip. “What was that for?”

“Would you like to, um, come over tonight?” Patrick asked. 

“I thought Ray played poker on Wednesdays?” It was Saturday, and the allusion to what they had gotten up to last Wednesday in a blissfully empty house sent a shiver down Patrick’s spine.

“He does, and so yes, he’ll probably be there. But I told you, he doesn’t mind. You’ll probably have to put up with some polite conversation—”

“Lengthy conversation,” David said.

“Okay, _lengthy_ conversation. After which we can excuse ourselves to my room.”

Their lone customer brought over a scarf along with a basketful of other items, so Patrick set about ringing up her purchases while David bagged them. As soon as the bell punctuated her departure, David rounded on him again.

“And what, pray tell, would we do in your room? Because I don’t know if you’re aware, but you can be a bit… noisy.”

Patrick blushed. He did know that, and he tried not to be, but this whole voyage of sexual discovery he was on with David left him a bit… out of control. “If you’re not comfortable doing anything while Ray’s home, we don’t have to. I just want to be with you.”

David’s mouth contorted into an almost-smile. “Are you saying you want to… snuggle?”

Patrick huffed as a few customers came in. He didn’t really feel like playing this game in front of other people. “I’d be interested in you coming over and sleeping with me. In my bed,” he said softly enough to not be overheard. “That’s what I want.”

Eyelashes fluttering, David nodded. “Okay, I suppose… I would be fine with that,” he said, his voice breathy. Patrick was starting to learn David’s tells and one of them was this, the way he spoke and acted when he was trying to pretend he didn’t care all that much about something that he actually cared about a great deal.

“Great,” Patrick said, leaving David to go see if the customers needed any help.

They ended up eating dinner with Ray and watching television with him for a little while after. While Ray and David argued over _The Bachelorette_ , Patrick scrolled his phone, looking for a funny gift for David. He’d sent David flowers when they had been dating for a month, and David was so amusingly put out by the idea of celebrating a monthly anniversary that Patrick couldn’t resist doing something even more sickeningly romantic to mark two months. He paused on a teddy bear that said _‘I wuv u beary much’_ on the belly, but he figured David would break up with him over something like that. It needed to be more subtle.

By the time they went upstairs, it felt almost normal to Patrick that they were just going to sleep. David spent a long time across the hall in the bathroom going through a skincare process that was still a mystery to Patrick. By the time David came back to the room, Patrick had almost nodded off over _The Small Business Bible_ twice. David, in a t-shirt and sweatpants, got under the covers.

“I prefer being the little spoon,” David said.

“I’ve actually already picked up on that preference, David,” Patrick said, putting his book aside and turning off his lamp before curling up against David’s back. Being the shorter one, Patrick found that if their pelvises were lined up, his face was against David’s shoulder blade. Patrick pressed a kiss over his t-shirt, his arm wrapping around David and hand settling on his chest. Patrick took a deep breath and let it out.

“This is nice,” David said after a few seconds of silence.

It was. It was also reminding Patrick of the last time David had been in his bed, when Patrick had been much less about snuggling and much more about fucking David into the mattress. He felt himself getting hard and of course, David noticed immediately, wiggling his ass against Patrick’s erection.

“Sorry,” Patrick whispered. 

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Because we’re just going to sleep.”

“We don’t have to just sleep,” David said, rolling over toward him.

“What about Ray?”

“You’ll just have to keep quiet,” David said, leaning over to kiss Patrick’s neck, a wet drag of tongue and lips that made him shiver.

“You’re not exactly quiet, David, at least in my somewhat limited experience,” Patrick said, his hand clenching on David’s hip.

“I can be,” David murmured against Patrick’s skin. “If I’m sufficiently motivated.”

“Also this bed squeaks pretty alarmingly, as we learned on Wednesday,” Patrick said.

“So we’ll stay as still as we can,” David murmured, already reaching for the bedside table drawer. Realizing his protests were perfunctory, Patrick kicked his pajama bottoms and underwear off, shoving them toward the foot of the bed.

The sensation of David’s slick hand on his cock made Patrick gasp like the first time David had touched him, the two of them fooling around in the back of the store a few days after their first kiss, when the definition of ‘slow’ had been stretched to allow for how badly Patrick wanted David to touch him and vice versa. He still wasn’t used to it, though, the way David’s hand could take him apart so effectively.

“Jesus,” Patrick hissed, teeth sinking into David’s shoulder, and he couldn’t resist just a little bit of thrusting into David’s fist. He tried to move as carefully as possible to keep any bed noise to a minimum. 

“Love seeing you like this, Patrick,” David whispered. “So turned on.” Patrick nodded frantically, closing his mouth before he completely lost control and broke the skin of David’s shoulder with his teeth. 

“Wanna touch you too,” Patrick said. He needed to focus at least part of his attention on making David feel good before he came embarrassingly quickly. 

“Right now, at the same time?” David asked.

Patrick nodded. 

There was more fumbling with clothes and lube, and then the two of them were again lying face-to-face, stroking each other and trying their best to be quiet. Patrick looked down between them, loving the sight of David’s dick in his hand almost as much as he loved the feel of it against his tongue. It was unbearably intimate and yet Patrick felt safe and cared for, the apprehension that had always accompanied sex for him just… not there with David. He squeezed his eyes shut, his other hand gripping David’s hip, fingernails marking his skin.

“That’s it, come all over me,” David murmured, and Patrick wondered if David could feel him get harder, signaling the fact that Patrick was close. Regardless, he couldn’t help but obey, stifling his moans against David’s shoulder again as he rode out his orgasm. He tried not to break the rhythm of his hand on David and he wasn’t sure he succeeded, so he redoubled his efforts. David’s own hand covered Patrick’s, making him squeeze tighter, guiding him to a faster rhythm. Then David kissed him, sloppy and uncoordinated, and stifled his moan in Patrick’s mouth as he came.

After a brief and only somewhat adequate cleanup job, they snuggled against each other, David once again the little spoon. Patrick felt the pull of post-coital drowsiness and he closed his eyes. 

“Thanks for coming over to sleep with me, David,” he murmured.

“Mmm. So what did you think of that lube?” David asked.

Patrick’s eyes popped back open and he frowned. “Why?” Patrick hadn’t noticed it. He was used to that being something David took care of since he had strong opinions about such things.

“It’s a sample for the store.” David yawned. “It’s organic and claims to be carbon neutral, I guess? I’m test driving it.”

“So, exactly what Roland suggested we do,” Patrick said, smirking against David’s back. “He’ll be so happy to hear that.”

“If you tell him, we’re breaking up,” David said, adjusting his head on his pillow. 

“Okay, well I don’t want to break up. Should I only tell your dad, then?”

“Goodnight, Patrick.”

Patrick kissed David one more time on the shoulder, grinning. “Goodnight, David.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [tumblr](https://unfolded73.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
